1. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates generally to electrical power load control systems and, more particularly, to manipulating controlled energy using devices at a service point for the purpose of placing a customer's bill within a controlled pricing envelope.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of billing arrangements are in use by utilities, including “flat rate,” “time of use,” “comprehensive protection plan,” “average rate,” and other types of billing for end commercial or residential utility customers. Currently, electric utilities provide limited tools to allow customers to limit or manage their energy bills. Utilities may offer flat rate billing to help customers limit their bills.
However, there is no interactive feedback from utilities to help customers know if they are projected to exceed the energy usage that the customer desires. Feedback only comes in the form of the next bill, when it is too late to make changes for the previous billing period.
Finally, if customers want to take actions to limit energy usage, there are a variety of manual, time-consuming tasks that the customer can perform, such as lowering the thermostat, reducing showers, manually turning off the water heater when away, etc. There is no single simple approach that the customer can use to specify actions to limit the current energy bill.